Background: few studies have studied prophylactic mesh closure after laparotomy for colorectal surgery.
Methods: a retrospective cohort study was performed to compare patients with and without prophylactic mesh closure after open colorectal surgery.
Results: 309 patients were included from January 2014 to December 2016. Prophylactic mesh closure was performed in 98 patients (31.7%). After a mean follow-up of 21.7 months, incisional hernia was developed in 9 and 54 patients in the group with and without mesh respectively (9.2% vs. 25.7%, OR = 0.3, p = 0.001). In the multivariate Cox model prophylactic mesh closure was associated with a protective effect on incisional hernia development with a Hazard Ratio of 0.46 (p = 0.033). Surgical site infection was more frequent in the mesh group (19.4% vs. 9.5%, OR = 2.3, p = 0.015).
Conclusions: prophylactic mesh closure is effective to decrease the incidence of incisional hernia after colorectal surgery.
Keywords: Colorectal surgery; abdominal wall; incisional hernia; prophylactic mesh.